The course is held in the beautiful surroundings of Margam Country park, Port Talbot Wales, certainly a little way to travel from my home base in Luton, Bedfordshire.
Having recently graduated from the Open University in December 2017 with a degree in Environmental sciences. I really wanted to get a grip on my Fieldwork and identification skills, as my degree didn’t really cover a lot of identification and I think It did show on the course.
Fair warning there is a lot of walking on the course, but this shouldn’t put you off. Most of the activities on the course take place within Margam country park, whilst the final day spent on sand dunes.
The course mainly focuses on plant identification within in different habitats and the invertebrates of which make up the communities of different fresh water habitats such as a freshwater stream and a freshwater pond. We also covered some Deer identification, and spent some time tracking down different bats.
Personally, I came away with handle on what and how to improve my skills, and it I am already looking at other courses, such as how to use the Botany key held in Bushy park and possibly the Vegetative Plant Identification also held at Margam.
The tutors are very supportive with this class there was only 5 of us of differing abilities, whilst the facilities at Margam are great and a 3-day course for £160.00 which includes accommodation and food, is certainly great value for money and any prospective Science graduates looking to improve their field and identification skills, should certainly consider the course.